Giving the government control over security changes, a US IT company warns, might put encrypted goods in jeopardy.
According to Apple, upcoming changes to British surveillance laws may compromise the privacy of iPhone users by requiring Apple to remove security protections, which might ultimately result in the closure of services like FaceTime and iMessage in the UK.
The company has grown to be a loud critic of actions it believes the UK government is taking to violate online privacy, and it recently warned that some sections in the upcoming internet safety bill may jeopardise message encryption.
The Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which gives the Home Office the authority to request access to encrypted content via a technological capability notice (TCN), is the focus of Apple’s most recent worries.
One of the most important technological privacy features and a hotly contested battleground between governments and tech companies is end-to-end encryption, which makes sure that only the sender and recipient of a message can read its content.
Apple claimed that the modifications contained a clause giving the UK government control over security fixes to its devices, including routine iOS software updates. According to the Home Office survey, operators should be “mandated” to notify the home secretary of any service changes that would “negatively impact investigatory powers.”
Apple stated in a submission to the government that such a move would essentially give the home secretary control over security and encryption updates worldwide when combined with additional proposals strengthening requirements for non-UK companies to implement changes globally if – like Apple – they operate via a global platform.
According to Apple, the measures would “make the Home Office the de facto global arbiter of what level of data security and encryption are permissible”.
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